Damien opened the door, and a small bell overhead tinkled. Even so, it was clear that the woman he saw screaming into Caroline’s face was having far too much enjoyment to notice. He, however, took notice of everything. The venom in the woman’s eyes, the glee glistening just behind it.
Caroline, however, had her head down, shoulders bowed, and was shaking her head. Whatever fighting spirit she had to argue with him, it was clear that it had vanished when it came to this woman. A thought that both intrigued and annoyed him.
“Please forgive me for being late, Mrs. Parks. I promise you I will stay after shop hours to make up for the time lost,” Caroline politely implored. “I finished the dress last night as you requested, and today the only thing I need to repair—”
“How dare you talk back to me! Youuseless—”
The woman was no doubt winding up toward another tirade, and that was something Damien simply could not abide. He cleared his throat and stepped between the two women, towering over Caroline’s employer with a warning look.
“Is this how you treat your customers?” he growled out. “You leave them standing on their own while you publicly berate your workers?”
The woman’s mouth gaped open and shut like a fish attempting to breathe out of water as her face went from red to pale white.
“Please. Leave it be,” Caroline whispered behind him, but he ignored it.
“I am waiting,” he barked into the woman’s face when she did not answer him a moment later.
The woman jumped and quickly bowed her head.
“Apologies, sir—”
“It isYour Grace,” Damien snarled.
Somehow, the woman’s face grew paler as her eyes widened with awareness.
“Your Grace!” she quickly stammered. “I... I did not know. Please accept my sincerest apologies. What an honor to have you visit our village. H-how can we help you?”
Damien straightened as he kept his glare trained on the trembling woman before him. Then, after a moment, he broke eye contact and made a show of taking a long look around the shop. He grimaced with dissatisfaction. It was a place that clearly did not cater to the wealthiest members of society.
“My betrothed is in need of new dresses,” he said stiffly. “Though it appears you are severely lacking in an inventory that would be worthy of her beauty.”
“Oh, Your Grace, if I may, you would be pleasantly surprised by what we can create here,” the woman replied.
As if understanding just how much money she could stand to make from him, the woman’s stuttering ceased, and her voice grew more confident as she waved a hand in Caroline’s direction.
“I have a very talented seamstress, and she can show you some of the better inventory from my storeroom. My usual clientele cannot afford such finery, so I do not display it, but I believe we could create something lovely for your betrothed.”
Smirking, Damien turned around and looked at Caroline. Her beautiful, full lips remained parted in apparent shock, but her oak brown eyes sparkled with fury at his intervention.
“What do you think, my love?” he asked, and his smirk grew into a devilish grin as he heard the woman behind him gasp. “Should we acquire your new wardrobe here? Or take our business elsewhere?”
“I… Your… Your betrothed…”
Damien whirled back to the stammering woman.
“Perhaps if you had taken a moment to stop your berating of her, you would have learned thatIam the reason she was late. You see, she just accepted my proposal, and we simply had to take a minute to celebrate,” he said, his deep voice coming out smooth and laced with condescension.
Amusement tunneled through him as the woman’s face went from ghostly pale to pink, to a deep shade of purple. Her eyes flicked from him to Caroline, then back to him, as if she was struggling to accept the grave error she had just made.
“I... I did not know,” the woman whispered, taking a step back from them both. “Forgive me, I did not know.”
“Even so, why would you speak to her like that?” Damien asked, cocking his head to the side as he scrutinized the woman. “Do you feel pleasure in making someone feel so lowly?”
“Doyou?”Caroline murmured, and he could not help but chuckle.
Instead of answering her, though, he stepped to her side. He nearly put his hand on her lower back, but then the rules she had given flashed in his mind, and instead, he clasped his hands behind his own back.
“My betrothed and I are leaving in two days,” he informed the woman, his face once more falling into a blank mask. “Canyouput together a couple of dresses in that time, or do we need to take our money elsewhere?”
